Programs in automated systems are typically organized with the aid of so-called organization blocks, program blocks and function blocks.
An increasing number of graphical editors are used in the configuration/programming of automated systems, by means of which block symbols of the elementary operations and basic functions running in the automation devices are interconnected to form more complex networks.
The organization blocks and program blocks are subsequently generated for control programs of the automated system from these networks shown in graphical form, with the aid of code generators or so-called ‘mappers’.
In this case the processing sequence of these blocks must also be determined.
This is usually done manually by the user, in which he sets corresponding block parameters for example. Automatic advanced occupation for these block parameters, which are, if necessary, automatically generated by the automated system, and are derived from the chronological processing of the block symbols or from the otherwise determined initial values, must generally be overwritten again by the user, since the processing sequence resulting therefrom is generally not suited to correctly implementing the technological function of a block network during the program run.
In the case of configuration and programming, the result here is that a very considerable manual effort must be carried out in order to determine the processing sequence of the function blocks. In particular, after every change in the network, a change in the processing sequence and its documentation and test runs of the changed network are required, this being very expensive and prone to fault.
With complex automation tasks, several hundred block symbols can be arranged and interconnected on function charts. The manual determination of the processing sequence of the function blocks is thus a very costly and error-prone method, particularly for such networks structured in such a complex manner.